October 23-25
Hiroshima, one of two cities now most well-known for having atomic bombs dropped on them.
I arrived here in the morning, and since Japanese hotels and inns generally encourage check-ins at around the 4:00 to 6:00 clock mark, this meant ditching the bag in a coin-locker at the station. Which was fine, except that I'd still got my Akihabara expensive cheap umbrella with me.
Some economics: My luggage fits in a 300 yen (£1.50-ish) locker (When in Japan, travel light, but it's still too heavy to haul around town all day). But brolly-chan won't fit in anything less than a full-height 600 yen locker. So, given that I'll be doing this several times, putting brolly-chan into a locker at each stop would cost several times the brolly's original price.
But I don't like throwing things away... So that's why I was walking round Hiroshima's peace park, in the blazing sunshine, with an umbrella.
It seemed to be natural-disaster season... No sooner was typhoon #23 off the news than there was a major earthquake in the north of the country, in Niigata.
(October 24)
A day trip from Hiroshima to the holy island. Travelling by street-tram, train, and ferry.
